The Post CARD
A Publication of the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities Fall 2001

.A SEASON OF CHANGE
AT
CARD/UF GAINESVILLE

WE MOVE FROM 804A NW 16TH AVE.
TO 806A NW 16TH AVE.
IN GAINESVILLE .
On August 28, CARD will move from
its current suite of offices in the 804
building at the Pecan Park office devel-
opment to a suite of offices in the new
uic .A_ 806 building just next door. After only
r rwr two years, we've outgrown the offices
S& m we occupy now, and the new space will
ted w allow us to hold some of our training
lsablities right in our office space. We look for-
ward to seeing you there!

...SAY GOODBYE TO EMILY SAVARESE & DANIELLE LISO
This summer we have reluctantly said farewell to two members of the
CARD staff. Emily Savarese, who started working at CARD in 1996 and who
was CARD's Assistant Director, has left to move to Iowa with her husband
Ralph and their son DJ. Danielle Liso, a Support Specialist on the CARD
staff for the past year, is returning to Maryland, where she will be teaching
middle school and pursuing a Ph.D. at The Johns Hopkins University. We will
miss them both and we offer them our best wishes for their continuing
success.
...AND The Post CARD GOES ON-LINE
In order to bring our constituents, our providers, and all the other
friends and associates on our mailing list news of our activities as quickly and
economically as possible, we're putting The Post CARD on-line at the CARD
website. We're asking all readers of The Post CARD who have internet ac-
cess to agree to receive our publications and mailings electronically. Look
inside this issue for a letter with more details, and please send us back the
enclosed card in the business reply envelope as soon as you can. Getting our
news to you electronically will ensure that you get it as soon as possible, and
will help us to husband our resources for the other services we provide.

CONSTITUENT HIGHLIGHT
Caity Bryant

Facts about Caity
* Current age: 7
* Diagnosed with autism at age 3
* Attends school in Citrus County
* Fully included in a 2nd grade classroom
* Participates in a Brownie Troop
* Receives occupational therapy, speech
therapy and sensory integration at the All
Children's Sertoma Center of Citrus County
* Featured in this summer's All Children's
Hospital Telethon
* Mother, Marianne, is a CARD UF/
Gainesville Constituency Board Member
* Youngest of 4 children
* Favorite activities: roller skating,
playing with Barbie dolls, camping,
swimming at the beach, playing soccer, going
to school, and playing with
her sister Cara and her friends
* Favorite food: pizza
* Favorite TV show: The Powerpuff Girls
Recent Additions to the CARD UF/Gainesville Library:
Asperger Syndrome and Sensory Issues: Practical Solutions
for Making Sense of the World
by Brenda Myles et al.
How Rude!: The Teenagers' Guide to Good Manners,
Proper Behavior and Not Grossing People Out
by Alex Packer
Asperger's Huh?
by Rosina Schnurr
Taming the Recess Jungle
by Carol Gray
Comic Strip Conversations
by Carol Gray
Creating a "Win-Win IEP" for Students with Autism
by Beth Fouse

BENEFITS UPDATE
"The Ticket to Work"
By Art Wallen
The Ticket to Work program is the most
important part of new legislation signed into
law by then President Clinton under the
Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Im-
provement Act of 1999. The goal of this
federal program is to increase the choices
Social Security beneficiaries with disabili-
ties have for obtaining employment, voca-
tional rehabilitation, and other support
services from public and private providers.
Under the Program, the Social Security
Administration (SSA; see SSA.gov web site)
will provide disability beneficiaries with a
TICKET (or voucher) that can be used to
obtain services they need to support their
work from an Employment Network (EN) of
their choice.

An Employment Network is any agency,
state or private, that takes responsibility
for the coordination or the actual delivery
of employment related services. An EN can
be a single entity, a consortium, or an asso-
ciation of organizations collaborating to
combine resources to serve Ticket-holders.

If you want more information about the
Ticket to Work program contact Ms. Bar-
bara Butz at The Capstone Group at 850-
421-6605 to register, or register on-line at
allaboard@askcapstone.com.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

The 9th Annual CARD
Conference will be held in
Orlando, FL on
January 11-13, 2002.
Brochures will be mailed out
in late September.

CARD/UF GAINESVILLE
RECEIVES $20,000
DONATION
On April 16, 2001, CARD Execu-
tive Director br. Ralph Maurer ac-
cepted on CARD's behalf a donation of
$20,000 from The Children's Charities
to Combat Mental Illness and the
Ragosin Charitable Foundation. All of
us at CARD want to extend our thanks
for this generous gift!

Jared Piotrkowski, who directs
the Charities along with his brother
Joshua, presented Dr. Maurer with the
donation. Jared is a sophomore at UF,
where he is preparing to pursue a medi-
cal degree. While attending high school
at the University School at Nova Uni-
versity, he volunteered at the Bauduin
School. The brothers raised money for
the Charities over the course of two
years by organizing walkathons and car
washes, and by persuading Jared's
senior class to donate half of its fund
to the Charities.

CARD hopes to use this gift to
develop a program to support the par-
ents and families of its constituents.

FOCUS ON
THE CLASSROOM
Congratulations to....
Tracy Alford from Talbot Elementary
and Rae Conroy from Idylwild
Elementary, who received
2000-2001 Alachua County ESE
Teacher of the Year awards
and to...
Kathy Robinson from J.J. Finley
Elementary in Alachua County, who
received a Career Service Employee
of the Year award.

STAFF HIGHLIGHT
Robbin Anderson

Robbin, a Support Specialist
at CARD since 1999, grew up in
Colorado. There, as a child at
school, she struggled with a
reading difficulty that only
years later would be diagnosed as dyslexia. This
early frustrating experience with dyslexia,
Robbin believes, gives her an intuitive insight
into the ways CARD's constituents think and
experience the world.

The path from her childhood experiences to
working at CARD, however, was not a direct one.
Robbin has worked as a travel agent and as a
photo researcher, and had her sights set on
computer science when she began college. Real-
izing that she was more interested in life sci-
ences, though, she began to train to teach
middle school science. While taking the neces-
sary education courses, she became fascinated
by the study of learning disabilities, and gradu-
ated from the University of Central Florida with
a concentration in specific learning disabilities.

Before coming to CARD, Robbin worked at
Colonial High School in Orlando, where she
taught physically impaired students, was depart-
ment chair of the largest exceptional student
education staff in Orange County, established
the first inclusion co-taught classrooms in Or-
ange County, and secured job placements at the
Orlando International Airport for her students.

When asked how she sees her work as a
Support Specialist at CARD, Robbin explains
that she tries to "focus on quality of life issues
for her constituents-no matter what their
age-so that they can have more balanced lives."

* Hired three new professionals to serve our constituents
* Created a new computerized database tracking system for our lending library
for constituents
* Provided individualized mentoring to six teachers serving students with autism
* Created and disseminated a new training videotape on "Making and Using Visual
Supports"
* Increased the skills of CARD staff by participating in training opportunities
throughout the year
* Provided monthly educational opportunities for families and professionals at
the UF campus site
* Provided 24 evening information sessions for families at locations in Citrus,
Putnam, Marion, Suwannee, Columbia, and Hernando Counties
* Mailed out customer satisfaction surveys to families and teachers to provide
an indication of our constituents' response to Center services
* Provided 1,808 individual assistance direct contacts to our constituents
* Provided 92 Training workshops to professionals and family members
* Provided 30 Public Education presentations to community members
* Provided Technical Assistance to professionals in schools, hospitals,
universities, and adult service agencies